Another time change was made last night which is so routine now that it doesn't create problems. We arrived sometime before 0600 and made fast at 0630. We had a nice view of the city, the port facilities and the mountains from our veranda. From Aqaba, we see Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
 |
| view from the ship |
A nice drive into the mountains took us past the “Lawrence of Arabia” area and signs of the Bedouin life began to appear. Throughout the morning we saw tents, goats and camels. We joined the King's Road, or the Silk Road; a former caravan route. At times the panorama from the mountains looked down upon plains below and Israel.
( Double click to enlarge photos)
After about 85 kilometers we stopped at a hotel, and after a bathroom break, headed down the mountainside on foot for the next adventure.
This is a UNESCO world heritage site, originally a 4th century BC capital of the Nabataens. Lying in a valley and well hidden, this ancient city covers about 20 square miles and most of it remains buried. Its most famous structure, the Treasury, is recognizable to many from the movie Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade. To enter the city, one walks down a narrow gorge, twisting and winding between rock walls of varying shades of red, purple to pale yellow. Everywhere there were carvings in the rock walls and the remains of a water trough running along the sides was still in great shape. The towering walls sometimes seemed to come together high above the original cobblestone way. After a final turn, through the towering gap in the gorge one comes face to face with the Treasury facade, carved from the face of the rock wall. The amphitheater could seat 3000 people. A carved mountainside is the largest facade, the Deir, or monastery. This overlooks the wadi Araba and when the weather is clear, the Sinai. The temples, caves, facades, tombs, brick buildings and so on made quite a city, and this was a wealthy city at its time; it was the center of the ancient spice trade involving China, Egypt, Greece and India. The Romans invaded. The Crusaders invaded. Moses's brother, Aaron, is buried on a mountaintop not far from Petra. Following the Crusades, the city was unknown to the west until re-discovered in 1812 by a Swiss traveler.
Visit www.wikipedia.org/wiki/petra or www.visitjordan.com/visitjordan_cms/majorattractions/petra/tabid/63/default.aspx or
or: http://www.petrapark.com
 | |
| Mosaics |
 | |
| Grand Temple |
No comments:
Post a Comment